US President Barack Obama warned that the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian conflict would be a "game-changer".
In a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamlin Netanyahu, on the first day of his « historic » visit in Israel, Obama vowed to "investigate thoroughly" evidence that the Syrian government used chemical weapons against its own people.
"We know the Syrian government has the capacity to carry out chemical weapon attacks," Obama said. "We know that there are those are in the Syrian government who have expressed a willingness to use chemical weapons if necessary to protect themselves. I am deeply skeptical of any claim that in fact it was the opposition that used chemical weapons. Everybody who knows the facts of the chemical weapons stockpiles inside of Syria as well as the Syrian government capabilities, I think, would question those claims."
"Once we establish the facts, I have made clear that the use of chemical weapons is a game changer," he said.
"When you start seeing weapons that can cause potential devastation and mass casualties and you let that genie out of the bottle, then you are looking potentially at even more horrific scenes than we've already seen in Syria. And the international community has to act on that additional information," he added.
Obama said the United States shares the concern that the weapons could be transferred to a group like Hezbollah and used against Israel. "The Assad regime must understand that they will be held accountable for the use of chemical weapons or their transfer to terrorists, » the President said.